PORT ORCHARD - Not long after Lary Coppola became mayor of Port Orchard in 2008, he recalls getting a curious visit from some respected local business people and a man in "scraggly" jeans, flip-flops and a T-shirt.

The man's casual dress for a meeting about a purported multimillion dollar redevelopment of downtown Port Orchard made Coppola skeptical.

But Thomas W. Myers claimed to have financial backing — including from the locals who accompanied him to the meeting — to buy and raze buildings along Bay Street and build a retail corridor topped with condos.

Over the next few months, Coppola said he questioned Myers about where he'd get the money. "When I was insistent about where the financing was coming from, I stopped hearing from him," he said.

It simply sounded too good to be true, Coppola said. Evidently, it was.

Myers now finds himself in the Kitsap County jail on $100,000 bail. Kitsap County prosecutors have charged the 42-year-old with four counts of first-degree theft, five counts of second-degree theft and three counts of forgery, all felonies.

The charges carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

"We spent thousands of dollars putting this project together," said Ron Rider, a Port Orchard businessman who was one of the potential investors in the Bay Street redevelopment. "And it was just all smoke and mirrors."

Bay Street was only one project Kitsap County Sheriff's Office detectives say Myers used to hook investors into giving him thousands of dollars with the promise of profits that never materialized.

The sheriff's office alleges that Myers made a series of bogus claims, including that he was a Rhodes scholar; a special adviser to the boards of Microsoft and Starbucks; a swimming world record holder; an acquaintance of former British prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown; and an expert in engineering wind farms.

He claimed to be president and CEO of a company he called "Windcap." He claimed to own a unique patent for wind turbine technology and presented himself as a "highly regarded international business man," the sheriff's investigation said.

Myers would show investors forged documents from a NASA scientist explaining the benefits of the wind turbine technology.

Only one problem: "During the time he was representing himself as the president of Windcap Corp., no such company existed, nor did he own the patent," the investigation said. The patent exists, but it's owned by a Vancouver, Wash., man.

Myers created the company in January 2009, when he reportedly asked an investor to file documents to create it online because he did not have a credit card.

Other victims reported Myers claimed to be vice president of a Las Vegas-based organization called Pinnacle Development Group.

Some of the victims formed an investment group and Myers asked for $500,000 from each person, the investigation said. Investors' confidence increased when they were presented with the forged letter from a NASA scientist calling the turbine technology a "solid rock investment."

The investment group gave Myers around $40,000, some of which was used to pay off some of his debts.

A Gig Harbor couple also paid Myers $10,000 for two "feasibility" studies on their business properties in Gig Harbor and Port Orchard.

He told the couple he could get money from an investment group that included Bill Gates, Sir Richard Branson and "some Middle East Oil conglomerate types." But the couple were told to keep it secret or they'd be removed from consideration for funds, the investigation said. The funding, he said, was held in a Dubai bank and "funneled" through an Isle of Mann Corp. "for anonymity and tax purposes."

The couple let Myers rent a new home on Olalla Valley Road for $5,000 a month. While he paid an initial $500, the couple said he lived there without paying for months, leaving them out about $45,000. They also allowed him to recover from a surgery at their home for six weeks and loaned him $10,000. The couple reported he also stole their credit card and paid off a $2,200 phone bill with it.

Detectives noted that Myers was previously convicted of attempted forgery and second-degree theft, both gross misdemeanors. He also had 2010 arrest warrants in King, Pierce and Grays Harbor counties.

Kitsap County prosecutors got a warrant for his arrest on the current charges in February. It is unclear where he was arrested, but he was transferred from the Pierce County jail into custody in the Kitsap County jail on Aug. 24, according to Scott Wilson, Kitsap County Sheriff's spokesman.

Craig Kibbe, Myers' court appointed attorney, said he could not yet comment on the case as he'd just begun to review it.